THE GREAT NEWSPAPER COUNTRY

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 1, Issue 95, 4 May 1880, Page 3

THE GREAT NEWSPAPER COUNTRY

Our great progress in journalism is shown by the fact that in 1775 there were in the United States less than forty newsperiodicals, whose aggregate issue lor that, year comprised 1,200,000 copies ; now the united press publishes over 500 daily newspapers, more than 4000 weeklies, and about 600 publications ; of the dailies that existed in 1870, about 800,000,000 copies were struck off that year ; and of the weeklies, about 600,000,000 ; and of other serial publications about 100,000,000, amounting in all to 1,500,000,000 copies. And to sum the matter up yet more forcibly it must be stated that the United States publishes more newspapers, with greater combined circulation, than all the other countries of the world can boast of having. The oldest paper of uninterrupted publication in this country is the Hartford Courant, which has already attained the hoary age of 110 years. In regard to its last birthday it plavntively says, “ We believe that with the already announced death of a New Hampshire paper, recently, at the age of 116, we are left in a condition of absolute isolation. The last of our early contemporaries is gone.” —San Francisco Call.